Toby Stephens, Tara Fitzgerald and Christopher Eccleston will join Gillian Anderson in the cast of A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse from 14 May (press night 19 May).
The stellar cast – which also includes Anton Lesser and Maggie Wells – has been assembled for Zinnie Harris’s new version of Ibsen’s classic, which stars Anderson as devoted wife Nora, who, after risking her reputation for her husband, begins to question that devotion. Harris sets the story against the backdrop of British politics at the turn of the century, in a world where duty, power and hypocrisy rule.
Stephens was last at the Donmar Warehouse in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal in 2007. His numerous stage credits include The Country Wife and A Streetcar Named Desire at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, plus Coriolanus and Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His screen outings have included television dramas The Camomile Lawn, Cambridge Spies, Jane Eyre and The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall – the latter two alongside Fitzgerald – and films Die Another Day and Onegin.
Eccleston is well known for his screen appearances which have included the films Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later and Elizabeth and television roles in Cracker, The Second Coming, Heroes and a season as Doctor Who when the programme was revived by Russell T Davies in 2005. Eccleston has not been seen on a London stage since Miss Julie at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2000, though he has worked more recently at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, appearing in Hamlet and Electricity.
Fitzgerald’s stage work has included Our Song at the Apollo theatre, Hamlet in the West End and on Broadway and Antigone at the Old Vic. She was due to appear in Pinter double bill The Lover and The Collection in the West End in 2007 but pulled out after falling ill. Her face is recognised for her work on films Brassed Off and I Capture The Castle and roles in television series The Virgin Queen and Waking The Dead.
Experienced actor Lesser was last seen on the London stage in The Vertical Hour at the Royal Court in January last year.
A Doll’s House, which is directed by Kfir Yefet, opens at the Donmar Warehouse following Dimetos, starring Jonathan Pryce, which runs until 9 May.
CB